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Cheap Therapist Says You're Insane
Cheap Therapist Says You’re Insane is a debut collection of stories that announces a startling new talent in American storytelling. Parker Young’s short stories and flash fictions combine humor, anxiety, and pathos as they walk a razor’s edge between the absurd and compelling human stakes. Young’s total command of voice and style makes for stories sure to linger in the haunted air of your subconscious.
“As did Russell Edson, Parker Young beholds the universe’s catastrophizing with admiration. Like tiny inky quilts, his prose-devisings are tinkerings in, with, and about the border between intricacy & error.”–Jesse Ball, author of Autoportrait
“This collection inhabits a comic uncanny that offers kindness and anarchy both: a Donald Barthelme pose made new in this modern moment. Each piece tumbles toward its perfect end—sometimes slapstick, sometimes tragic, sometimes motionless, but often all three. In this book’s feints of metafiction, and in its fundamental sincerity, there is proof that writing is an existential act.” –Amanda Goldblatt, author of Hard Mouth
“These brief and impressionistic stories capture the strange, inchoate logic of dreams better than any collection I’ve read. They are ripe with a vague foreboding, confident yet dissociative leaps in time and place, inarticulate obsessions, quiet and bizarre quandaries. A fresh spin on continental neuroticism.”–Zac Smith, author of Everything Is Totally Fine
“I do not know Parker Young. He is not my friend. We follow each other on at least one social media platform, but in a crowd I wouldn’t be positive if I was looking at him or a man named John “Julie” Patton. These words I am typing are a favor to no one. I say all that to tell you, this person, Parker Young, who is not my friend, but may one day become my friend, has written a collection of stories that I love. This collection is among my very favorites I’ve read in years. Funny, seeing, hopeful, doomed; this collection is populated with people you know and that you will hope to never meet. This is beautiful writing with the light shining out.”–Alex Higley, author of Old Open
“A book like a collection of tiny thunderstorms, or a box of bouncing balls and spinning tops.”–Ben Loory, author of Tales of Falling and Flying
Parker Young lives in Chicago. His stories have appeared in No Contact, X-R-A-Y, HAD, Always Crashing, Bluestem, Juked, and elsewhere.
“As did Russell Edson, Parker Young beholds the universe’s catastrophizing with admiration. Like tiny inky quilts, his prose-devisings are tinkerings in, with, and about the border between intricacy & error.”–Jesse Ball, author of Autoportrait
“This collection inhabits a comic uncanny that offers kindness and anarchy both: a Donald Barthelme pose made new in this modern moment. Each piece tumbles toward its perfect end—sometimes slapstick, sometimes tragic, sometimes motionless, but often all three. In this book’s feints of metafiction, and in its fundamental sincerity, there is proof that writing is an existential act.” –Amanda Goldblatt, author of Hard Mouth
“These brief and impressionistic stories capture the strange, inchoate logic of dreams better than any collection I’ve read. They are ripe with a vague foreboding, confident yet dissociative leaps in time and place, inarticulate obsessions, quiet and bizarre quandaries. A fresh spin on continental neuroticism.”–Zac Smith, author of Everything Is Totally Fine
“I do not know Parker Young. He is not my friend. We follow each other on at least one social media platform, but in a crowd I wouldn’t be positive if I was looking at him or a man named John “Julie” Patton. These words I am typing are a favor to no one. I say all that to tell you, this person, Parker Young, who is not my friend, but may one day become my friend, has written a collection of stories that I love. This collection is among my very favorites I’ve read in years. Funny, seeing, hopeful, doomed; this collection is populated with people you know and that you will hope to never meet. This is beautiful writing with the light shining out.”–Alex Higley, author of Old Open
“A book like a collection of tiny thunderstorms, or a box of bouncing balls and spinning tops.”–Ben Loory, author of Tales of Falling and Flying
Parker Young lives in Chicago. His stories have appeared in No Contact, X-R-A-Y, HAD, Always Crashing, Bluestem, Juked, and elsewhere.
180 pages, Paperback
First published May 24, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
March 31, 2024
Fun, approachable, enjoyable collection of stories, each about the length of an ideal online literary submission (<2K words). If I were still reading submissions for the site I edited from 1999 to 2014 or so, I probably would've accepted 90% of them -- not that the 10% were lame or anything, just that most of these surprised in a way I liked to be surprised. The stories about writing I loved, each and every one of them. (Also the page about Lance Stephenson. Which reminds me that the publisher, who long ago contributed to the site I used to edit, once published a memoir that included a bit about Sedale Threatt. Which makes me think I should write a collection of very short stories, each about a single player, starting with one about Latrell Sprewell.) The story "May 24" I felt subtweeted my last two novels, as well as my forthcoming one, all of which take place on specific days (March 18, Dec 28, June 16) -- this bit from that story particularly hit me hard (made me laugh aloud etc): "It would have been an evil book, about the writer's supposedly superior means of moving through the world, transforming mundane experience into high culture, and I would have been forced to renounce it eventually." The final story, "The Story behind the Stories," I loved too, the way it shot ahead at a crazy pace, like Voltaire's Candide -- particularly loved the bit about friends with agents and Denis Johnson asking the narrator to leave his farm. Reminded me somewhat of Eli S. Evans's Obscure & Irregular, in good humor, accelerated pace, upright prose posture, and relentless narrative swerve.
December 26, 2024
I bought this book because of the title, Cheap Therapist Says Tou’re Insane (2023 by Parker Young, which made me smile, and because at least one of you said it was awesome. I had started it a couple times, and now finish it; I didn’t finish it because I didn’t like it--it’s always amusing--but because I wasn’t so taken with it that I felt compelled to finish it. It has youth written all over it, like recent MFA program style, though I could be wrong. It may have old age written all over it that is masked by a youthful exuberance. I am not trying to be condescending, but maybe I am. There’s some inside jokey-ness to it I appreciate about it, but then again, maybe I don’t. Call it absurdism, with a touch of paranoia.
Wait: why is Parker Young writing about me? So I decided to sit down and read the whole damned thing all the way through, throw caution to the wind, though I still broke it up with the reading of Simenon. So maybe this review will get confused by that reading, cuz it’s noir, and mystery, but not as funny as Young, but maybe this isn’t as funny as it seems! But probably it is.
The first story, “Golden Hour,” is about a man who thinks everyone hates him and that he is being followed by someone who looks like him. He sees a woman through a window carrying a knife. As the man following him closes in he knocks on the woman’s door to borrow his knife. She doesn’t let him in and the man speeds down the street, as the man closes in, and in a feedback loop (spoiler alert?) he continues to “try and figure out why everyone hated me. I knew I was being foll.” That is a kind of funny joke I laughed aloud at, not original, but way cute. Noir paranoia, played for laughs. Good opening story.
Many stories have clever, smart-ass hooks such as the opening to “Collaboration,” ”I was writing a fantastical story about two little sheep that have nowhere to go but up.” In the night the writer realizes his wife is changing the words to his story--more paranoia. The female sheep has the name of his wife, Tina, and “my name is Colin, and can you guess what the male sheep’s name is?” Colin watches a lot of tennis, which he says “I would never do. The writing about it, that is," though he does watch tennis all the time and it is in the story. And so on. Falling down down down the rabbit hole, Alice or in the tornado, the house spinning and a lamp hit her head, Dorothy! Hey,who hit Parker’s head? Or is it me?
“Carbon Monoxide” is about a guy, through all events in the story, is terrified there is a gas or carbon monoxide leak. No one else believes him! He insults people about their dog and runs outside as they want to kill him for the insult. What does this work remind me of? Little Murders, a 1970 film by Jules Ffeiffer about a dogshit photographer who gets his work published in art magazines, as everyone has multiple guns that they shoot randomly out of their windows for no particular reason. Cultural insanity, cultural commentary, is the point. Black humor. Capturing the political insanity of our times, like what?! You want WHO to be the Attorney General of the United States of America?! Coo coo for coconuts cray cray. Pop goes the weasel!
“Surveillance” is about a guy watching a live feed of his brother who may or may not be robbing a jewelry store. He may be carrying multiple phones, has multiple girlfriends. Ends in violence, again. It has Marx Brothers about it, that’s it!
As in “Oven Blew Up” where a guy’s oven blows up, then a replacement oven blows up, then an armoire they put in place of the oven blows up. You get the point. Happens to you all the time, I know. HIs wife and kids don’t believe him when he says they are in danger and may have to move. So it’s Hitchcock’s solitary ordinary man on a train, the world going crazy dragging the man into it.
I read them all though some more closely than others and they are all a bit different and a bit the same and make me smile most of the time. Wait: This guy is in Chicago! I live in Chicago! Maybe I am this guy! Maybe he has a gun and is following me! Why does he look like me?!
“Writing Fiction” has this insight: “Writing fiction is like trying ot figure out who ate the salami by eating the salami.”
Exactly.
“It’s like sending your kids away to orphanages and expecting them to track you down later in life to say, Dad, you’re beautiful.”
“It’s like visiting your tombstone for something to eat.”
Keep writing, dude! Someone read my review and read the book and call an editor to get this published in a major publication and give him a lot of money and give me a cut for this review promoting his work. My usual fee is like 20% but we can talk details later.
Note to author: You ARE insane, man, but I don’t say that like it’s a bad thing. Give me a call! I'm in the book.
Wait: why is Parker Young writing about me? So I decided to sit down and read the whole damned thing all the way through, throw caution to the wind, though I still broke it up with the reading of Simenon. So maybe this review will get confused by that reading, cuz it’s noir, and mystery, but not as funny as Young, but maybe this isn’t as funny as it seems! But probably it is.
The first story, “Golden Hour,” is about a man who thinks everyone hates him and that he is being followed by someone who looks like him. He sees a woman through a window carrying a knife. As the man following him closes in he knocks on the woman’s door to borrow his knife. She doesn’t let him in and the man speeds down the street, as the man closes in, and in a feedback loop (spoiler alert?) he continues to “try and figure out why everyone hated me. I knew I was being foll.” That is a kind of funny joke I laughed aloud at, not original, but way cute. Noir paranoia, played for laughs. Good opening story.
Many stories have clever, smart-ass hooks such as the opening to “Collaboration,” ”I was writing a fantastical story about two little sheep that have nowhere to go but up.” In the night the writer realizes his wife is changing the words to his story--more paranoia. The female sheep has the name of his wife, Tina, and “my name is Colin, and can you guess what the male sheep’s name is?” Colin watches a lot of tennis, which he says “I would never do. The writing about it, that is," though he does watch tennis all the time and it is in the story. And so on. Falling down down down the rabbit hole, Alice or in the tornado, the house spinning and a lamp hit her head, Dorothy! Hey,who hit Parker’s head? Or is it me?
“Carbon Monoxide” is about a guy, through all events in the story, is terrified there is a gas or carbon monoxide leak. No one else believes him! He insults people about their dog and runs outside as they want to kill him for the insult. What does this work remind me of? Little Murders, a 1970 film by Jules Ffeiffer about a dogshit photographer who gets his work published in art magazines, as everyone has multiple guns that they shoot randomly out of their windows for no particular reason. Cultural insanity, cultural commentary, is the point. Black humor. Capturing the political insanity of our times, like what?! You want WHO to be the Attorney General of the United States of America?! Coo coo for coconuts cray cray. Pop goes the weasel!
“Surveillance” is about a guy watching a live feed of his brother who may or may not be robbing a jewelry store. He may be carrying multiple phones, has multiple girlfriends. Ends in violence, again. It has Marx Brothers about it, that’s it!
As in “Oven Blew Up” where a guy’s oven blows up, then a replacement oven blows up, then an armoire they put in place of the oven blows up. You get the point. Happens to you all the time, I know. HIs wife and kids don’t believe him when he says they are in danger and may have to move. So it’s Hitchcock’s solitary ordinary man on a train, the world going crazy dragging the man into it.
I read them all though some more closely than others and they are all a bit different and a bit the same and make me smile most of the time. Wait: This guy is in Chicago! I live in Chicago! Maybe I am this guy! Maybe he has a gun and is following me! Why does he look like me?!
“Writing Fiction” has this insight: “Writing fiction is like trying ot figure out who ate the salami by eating the salami.”
Exactly.
“It’s like sending your kids away to orphanages and expecting them to track you down later in life to say, Dad, you’re beautiful.”
“It’s like visiting your tombstone for something to eat.”
Keep writing, dude! Someone read my review and read the book and call an editor to get this published in a major publication and give him a lot of money and give me a cut for this review promoting his work. My usual fee is like 20% but we can talk details later.
Note to author: You ARE insane, man, but I don’t say that like it’s a bad thing. Give me a call! I'm in the book.
Read
April 30, 2024Amazing collection of short stories & flash. Existential and mordantly funny stories with twists and surprises despite their brevity. I read it in one sitting; it has a "just one more" quality, in that the book feels electric and alive, and makes you excited to see where his mind will go with each successive piece. It will break your reading slump! Read more books from indie presses! Short stories 4ever!
June 10, 2023
This book is like a goth Yogi Berra and Chuck Klosterman falling into a meta existential black hole.
September 1, 2024
"𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵—𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨-𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭. 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸? 𝘜𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨."
There comes a book every so often that surprises. And here is a handful of surprises.
Each about 2-3 pages long, they start out as simple ideas only to be turned on their head to either say something about writing or the weird little quirk we hardly think about but is there forever-existing in our bodies, only to have the story implode on itself to offer surprise.
Odd. Delightful. Perfectly crafted, like playing God, creating something out of nothing.
There comes a book every so often that surprises. And here is a handful of surprises.
Each about 2-3 pages long, they start out as simple ideas only to be turned on their head to either say something about writing or the weird little quirk we hardly think about but is there forever-existing in our bodies, only to have the story implode on itself to offer surprise.
Odd. Delightful. Perfectly crafted, like playing God, creating something out of nothing.
August 25, 2024
I liked the writing, sometimes I felt like living inside the head of an overthinker, who's a little depressed, drowning in his own absurd abondant thoughts. I liked that.
June 10, 2023
It has been a long time since I’ve read something so unaffectedly funny that is also fucking wise. Each story shows me the world in its best, although most distorted, light. This book is filled with awe - in its oldest sense, and I feel closer to life and love for it.
October 1, 2024
This is enjoyable, absurd, and often very funny. As some of the other reviewers point out, the author is really good with the obsessed, deadpan narrator's voice. There's not a great range though; towards the end, I could only read 2-3 stories at a time before taking a break.
May 25, 2023
What a delight it is to witness an original mind at work. Each story is so tender, funny, and bizarre. As a reader you’re left marveling at both Young’s imagination and his technical abilities. He knows exactly what details to keep and then gets rid of the rest. Pick yourself up a copy, then blow through it in a single wet Wednesday.
September 27, 2023
Short and tender gems with a strong voice and unexpected turns and twists, blurring the line between real and surreal. Read this!
December 15, 2024
Yes, I picked this one up months ago because it has a fun title. I don't even like short stories and I don't think I even read what any of them were about. So here I am, ready to give this quick read 2 stars and get it over with, but it turned out to be funny and quirky as hell.
It's a bit experimental, very quirky, very fun. Every story had something that made me cackle or something that just was unusual enough to go 'huh, that was cool.' Every single one. The last story, 'The Story Behind the Stories', was a very cool wrap-up to it all, because yes, I did wonder how much of the stories were inspired by the author's life lol
Recurrent themes: poop, toilets, odd fixations and paranoia, and insomnia.
A few things I highlighted:
With terror, I realized I’d never peeled a tomato.
--
There’s nothing wrong with a sheep named Tina, and I would never claim otherwise. But in this case, it’s suspicious, because my wife’s name is Tina and my name is Colin, and can you guess what the male sheep’s name is?
--
My poop is afraid of me.
--
I can’t remember if I ever saw a customer. Maybe I was their only customer—once I bought a cactus for no other reason than I liked the word: cactus. Then I forgot to take it home.
--
I couldn’t find the sandwich, and that meant I couldn’t eat the sandwich. (...) My marriage sandwich. I knew it wasn’t a marriage sandwich, but I didn’t care. There is no such thing as a marriage sandwich, a sandwich which must be consumed in order to save your marriage.
It's a bit experimental, very quirky, very fun. Every story had something that made me cackle or something that just was unusual enough to go 'huh, that was cool.' Every single one. The last story, 'The Story Behind the Stories', was a very cool wrap-up to it all, because yes, I did wonder how much of the stories were inspired by the author's life lol
Recurrent themes: poop, toilets, odd fixations and paranoia, and insomnia.
A few things I highlighted:
With terror, I realized I’d never peeled a tomato.
--
There’s nothing wrong with a sheep named Tina, and I would never claim otherwise. But in this case, it’s suspicious, because my wife’s name is Tina and my name is Colin, and can you guess what the male sheep’s name is?
--
My poop is afraid of me.
--
I can’t remember if I ever saw a customer. Maybe I was their only customer—once I bought a cactus for no other reason than I liked the word: cactus. Then I forgot to take it home.
--
I couldn’t find the sandwich, and that meant I couldn’t eat the sandwich. (...) My marriage sandwich. I knew it wasn’t a marriage sandwich, but I didn’t care. There is no such thing as a marriage sandwich, a sandwich which must be consumed in order to save your marriage.
September 8, 2023
I usually never write reviews, but I found this book at Sandmeyer’s in Chicago tucked away in a little corner, with a note saying one of the employees wrote this book, so wanted to check it out. This book started off with such a bang, and kept up the same unique, dream-like energy throughout. The writing style and voice felt so novel and unlike any other short stories I’ve read, and excited to follow this author for more books soon!!
August 1, 2023
A life-giving collection of stories that often read more like daydreams or feverish hallucinations. Some of my favorite short fiction of the 2020’s so far. Compulsively re-readable, refreshing and heartfelt and raw…oh, and masterfully edited!
October 17, 2023
These stories are strange, disconcerting, and wonderful!
Read
March 18, 2025utterly bizarre
July 7, 2024
Like a new age, gayer Kurt Vonnegut.
November 18, 2024
Some stories made me laugh out loud. Very original.
October 7, 2025
Met the author at the bookstore it was sold at in Chicago. He was really cool.
May 12, 2024
i got this because it was promoted at a local bookstore due to it being written by one of the employees. i enjoyed it but i don’t think i’m a fan of surrealist literature. i was so close to being able to understand this book but it was just out of my reach.
July 28, 2023
really raw and real and funny. mostly just funny. love how off the cuff and silly it is while also being pretty heartfelt and relatable at times. favorite section was the toilet one i lol'd
July 16, 2023
Amusing, absurd, and strange. There were a few I really loved but almost all were enjoyable. The Story Behind the Stories was my favorite and I preferred the slightly longer ones.
July 18, 2023
I really enjoyed young Parker's "Cheap Therapist Says You're Insane." The stories were funny, insane, original, touchingly human and witty. Some of the stories were so downright weird that they had a certain realism to them. They were also very relatable. I think everyone has these strange experiences and thoughts and Parker put them into an imaginary world with apt skill. Although the book is thin, it packs a dozen or so mighty punches to your soul. You can choose to read this book in one day or read two or three stories a day over a two-week period. I personally enjoyed reading one to two stories while taking a break from the longer works I was reading. I felt I was able to enjoy, savor and think about how each story resonated with me and the world. I look forward to seeing more of Parker's work in the future.
Here are some of the stories I enjoyed most:
"Myrtle Beach"
"Sleeplessness"
"Flight to Paradise"
"Repentance Rebate"
"Disappearances"
"May 24"
"Writing Fiction"
"Lance, LeBron, Sally, and Polly"
"Two Bathtubs in Memphis"
"The Story Behind the Stories"
Here are some of the stories I enjoyed most:
"Myrtle Beach"
"Sleeplessness"
"Flight to Paradise"
"Repentance Rebate"
"Disappearances"
"May 24"
"Writing Fiction"
"Lance, LeBron, Sally, and Polly"
"Two Bathtubs in Memphis"
"The Story Behind the Stories"
December 3, 2023
these stories are unsettling, uncanny, yet familiar and chill in a fun kinda way. couldn’t put it down until i reached the end. i wished there wasn’t an end.
p.s. i will now never forget the date of Denis Johnson’s death because a story in this collection that semi-focuses on Johnson prompted me to look up if he was dead—i couldn’t remember for whatever reason—and he was: he died on May 24, a date mentioned in a couple of other preceding stories but not in the Johnson story. then when i finished CHEAP THERAPIST SAYS YOU’RE INSANE, i looked it up on the internet and noticed it was also published on May 24, a small but mighty detail in this collection of inventive and neurotic and sympathetic stories. you should read it!
p.s. i will now never forget the date of Denis Johnson’s death because a story in this collection that semi-focuses on Johnson prompted me to look up if he was dead—i couldn’t remember for whatever reason—and he was: he died on May 24, a date mentioned in a couple of other preceding stories but not in the Johnson story. then when i finished CHEAP THERAPIST SAYS YOU’RE INSANE, i looked it up on the internet and noticed it was also published on May 24, a small but mighty detail in this collection of inventive and neurotic and sympathetic stories. you should read it!
September 6, 2023
Easily one of my new favorite flash fiction pieces ever. phenomenal work— 10/10. Must read.
December 14, 2023
Wonderfully weird little book of stories about life, anxiety, dying, and funny interactions between humans. This book is for everyone.
January 30, 2025
think i know those two bathtubs in memphis…
October 24, 2025
I believe Parker Young writes about mental health the way most of us actually experience it. It's messy, inconsistent, sometimes tragic and sometimes absurd. There is a kind of brutal honesty in there that doesn't try to romanticize depression or dress anxiety up as aesthetic suffering (and that in a time where we turn so much self-deprecation into social currency).
That said, the book occasionally leans a tiny bit too hard into its own cleverness, where some chapters are more like an over-edited punchline. But when the irony drops and the ache breaths, it hits hard.
It still is refreshingly self-aware, funny and occasionally it hits a nerve so precisely you have to put the book down to take a deep breath.
For anyone who has ever joked about their trauma mid-panic attack or made a joke their therapist didn't like.
That said, the book occasionally leans a tiny bit too hard into its own cleverness, where some chapters are more like an over-edited punchline. But when the irony drops and the ache breaths, it hits hard.
It still is refreshingly self-aware, funny and occasionally it hits a nerve so precisely you have to put the book down to take a deep breath.
For anyone who has ever joked about their trauma mid-panic attack or made a joke their therapist didn't like.
June 17, 2023
Uncanny, unsettling stories that read like another person's (bad, weird) dreams. Two Bathtubs in Memphis really f*cked me up in the way that I want stories to. The ending is still rolling around in my brain. What happened? What does it mean? The stories were varied and interesting, and short enough that I would read several in a row instead of one at a time. This was a satisfying short story collection for me.
October 14, 2024
Cheap Therapist Thinks You're Insane is as cheeky as it is sarcastic as it is witty. The book reads like the title, "cheap therapist thinks your insane, no shit sherlock." I can't tell you the plot because then everything would be revealed but think calling 911 and the operator has a heart attack in the middle of the call. Its irony & charm & wit.
January 17, 2025
Idk if this necessarily “deserved” 4 stars but I enjoyed every page I read. I was often laughing or thinking or feeling. Which to me are all signs of a successful book. Can’t say everyone would love this but I definitely did.
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